May 30- Clayton, NM destination

Day 19 - Just a comment in passing. I am surprised in the variations in the taste of drinking water in different towns and cities we have camped in.  Most of the time it is not very good and sometimes it is downright undrinkable.  I am sure the water is safe and pure, but we travel with several gallons of bottled water just in case.  Springer and Clayton fit the category of undrinkable water.   We are thankful for Yellville's good drinking water.
Travel on this date was routine and very similar to yesterday.  We arrived at Clayton before lunch, a typical small town that has seen better times.  There were many boarded up businesses and they can't blame Wal-Mart, as there is not a Wal-Mart here or anyplace close by. We spent the night at a KOA campground only because there was no place else to stay.  This KOA lived up to their reputation of promising more than they deliver, very high fees, very run down sites.  KOA's are on the bottom list of all places to stay.  No pictures today.  God bless until next time.

May 29 - Changing landscapes

Day 18 - Taso is in a valley between two mountain ranges.  We headed eastward over the the last mountain range and topped out at 9000 ft. down into eastern New Mexico.  Again we drove through beautiful country, Cimarron Canyon is gorgeous and Lou saw a bear in the bushes.  We had planned on staying in a state park in Cimarron Canyon but, being Memorial Day weekend all campgrounds were full to overflowing.  We met Carrie and Jerry at the campground we had planned on staying in, they were still fresh and full of energy so we just kept traveling.  We found a nice shady pull-off by the side of the road and had a  nice lunch before we said good-bye again.

The high plains occupy 1/3 of eastern New Mexico.  We are talking big time ranch operations, one of which was a game preserve for hunters.  Miles and miles and miles of beautiful grazing land, punctuated with small mesas and high winds.

The Great Plains of New Mexico

We arrived at Springer, NM, spending the night at the Old Santa Fe Trail RV park.  The park must have been established for the covered wagons on their way west.  However, we had a good evening there, showers and a good night's sleep.  Free WI-FI coming in from who knows where, but not the park.  Carrie and Jerry arrived mid-afternoon and we treated them to a soft ice cream cone at Minnie's Dairy Inn.  How good can it get.

May 27, 28 - Taos, New Mexico

http://carriebsbigadventure.blogspot.com/
Day 16,17 - We arrived at Taos, New Mexico about noon and will be here for some R&R, catch up on laundry and other activities associated with everyday living.  We are in a lovely campground, Taos Valley RV Park and Campground.  Of course, when in New Mexico one dines on guacamole, green chilies, enchiladas, etc.  So we headed for Antonio's in the historic district of Taos.  We had a wonderful dinner, a good time and enjoyed it so much.

Be sure and visit Carrie and Jerry;s blog at http://carriebsbigadventure.blogspot.com/ for their daily experiences.  They have some very interesting tales to tell and we think you will enjoy it.  In the meantime, hopefully we can keep you updated in a more timely manner.  Only time will tell. 

May 26 - On to Hopewell Lake Forest Service Campground

Day 15 - We arrived early at a Forest Service Campground at a small lake known as Hopewell Lake, 9800 ft. altitude.  Tall pine trees, aspen trees, and a very friendly campground host.  Once again we are living off the grid, using our generator when needed and our holding tanks, but the price was right.

While sitting around the campfire, these two individuals with beards and backpacks wandered into our campsite to ask directions to the lake.  We gave them proper instructions and on their return to their campsite, they stopped again briefly to chat.  We had just finished dinner and asked them if they would like to share it.  They were very happy and went back to their campsite to put on jackets and bring a third party with them to dinner.  This proved to be a very positive experience for all of us.  They were "extreme long distance hikers" and opened up a whole new world for  Joe and I.  They were hiking the Continental Divide Trail from the Mexico border to the Canadian border and expected to finish their hike at Glacier National Park in Montana.  After dinner they entertained us with tales of how they got ready for this hike including the food they ate, where they slept and, in short, how they survived.  "Chief", the hiker from Israel lived on dry Raman noodles and Snicker bars; Jason (the big talker) spent all of last winter dehydrating his own food and making all his own camping gear (sleeping bag, packs, etc.)  Jack spent the winter working hard to finance his hike.They had a tent but they seldom used it, preferring to sleep in the open.  Below is a picture of the three young hikers.  From the left - Jason, Chief and Jack.

May 23-24-25 - Navajo Lake State Park, New Mexico

Days 12,13,14 - The plan this morning is everyone rides by truck to Navajo Lake State Park.  This was due to terrible dust storm (60 mile and hour winds, dust and debris).  On the way our faithful truck developed a cooling problem, so every few miles we had to add anti-freeze, water, branch water and anything else we could think of.  Of course, we were climbing up a steep grade going over a mountain range, it was Sunday and it was HOT.  We had to turn our wonderful air-condition off and rough it into Bloomfield, New Mexico.
We spent the night at The Desert Rose RV Park (cannot recommend but it worked in an emergency).  The next morning, the 24th, we found a wonderful truck repair place, Sweetland's Truck & Auto Repair Service in Farmington.  Randy Sweetland replaced hoses, etc., added the proper mix coolant and I am out of there by noon and on our way to new destination of Lake Heron State Park where we registered for two night.  We all needed a day of rest.
The kids rode their bikes as far as Dulce, NM and spent the night in a Best Western Motel and rejoined us on the 25th at Heron Lake.

May 22 - Canyon de Chelly

Day 11 - We drove from Monument Valley to Canyon de Chelly in a dust storm and high winds.

The beginning of the storm

In many ways Canyon de Chelly is more picturesque than Monument Valley.  It has an interesting history and I would urge you to check it out via the internet at your leisure.  We are still on Navajo Tribal land and the bottom of the canyon is farmed by Navajos in much the same way as it was done in days gone by.  They also raise sheep, fruit and other crops to sustain themselves.

These are pictures taken randomly while at Canyon de Chelly of some of the valley farms, ruins and rock formations.  Enjoy!

May 21 - Monument Valley

Day 10 - Director John Ford and actor, John Wayne, put Monument Valley on the map back in the 1930's.  John Wayne made about 8 or 9 of his famous western movies over a period of years here.  The pictures say it all about this "monumental landscape."

May 20 - Navajo National Monument

Day 9 - We are now in the Navajo Nation Tribal Reservation in north central Arizona and will be for the next 3 days. Indians reservations are seperate entities, however, they do observe state and federal laws.  We spent last night on this beautiful plateau at 7000 ft.  It was a campsite in the Navajo National Monument.

Living off the grid and loving it!

View of Navajo National Monument from campsite

The next morning we broke camp and set out for Monument Valley.

This is where we are headed!

May 19 - Buckskin Canyon Side Trip - Page, AZ

Day 8: Destination Page, AZ (Lake Powell). This was to be a short day (only 64 miles), as Jerry had planned a side trip for us to participate in. We met them at Mile Marker 26 on Highway 89 at about noon. We dropped the trailer due to the rough, gravel road across public lands we were going to be driving . We drove 4 miles to Buckskin Gulch Trailhead, lathered the sunscreen all over our bare skin, loaded Jerry down with our water and began a hike into the canyon.

Happy hikers just starting their hike.

Our goal was Pirea Slot Canyon. Jerry had hiked into this canyon a number of years ago and remembered that it wasn’t too far. After 1-1/2 hours through rugged, beautiful terrain we gave up and headed back to the truck. However, we still saw some beautiful land formations.

Lou had reached the point if she went any further they might have to carry her back. We were all disappointed but exhilerated also at the beauty we had beheld on our hike.

Lotus was a good trooper and had such a good time.

Monarch of all she surveys.

It had been such a long time since she had been able to run free. She slept so good that night. After our hike we returned to our trailer, rehooked and went on our way to Page, crossing the Glen Canyon Dam which creates Lake Powell, a major recreation facility for this part of the country.

May 18 - Zion Park to Kanab, UT

Day 7: We left Sand Hollow this morning and met the cyclists at the Visitor Center of Zion National Park. The U.S. highway through Zion National Park is steep, with many switchbacks with a series of long tunnels. Cyclists are not allowed on the road for reasons of safety so, once again the bicycles and cyclists were loaded up in the truck and rode along with us through the park up to the top of the mountains. Joe and I last drove this road in 2001.  However, we were pulling a 35 ft. 5th Wheel trailer and going downhill.  Sure was easier on the driver and passengers going uphill, pulling only a 20" travel trailer.  Even at that the tunnels are closed to opposing traffic lane and we had to driver down the middle stripe of the road.  The tunnel walls on the edges are not high enough for todays modern trailers to go under.

Again, words cannot describe the scenery, you just must come and visit it yourself.
At the top of the mountain we stopped, had a nice lunch and sent the Carrie and Jerry on their way.

Getting ready to ride again.

We all arrived safe and sound at Kanab, UT at different times that afternoon. Kanab was a nice place to spend the night.

May 17 - Hurricane, UT

Day 6 - We had a beautiful drive through the Utah countryside today. Pictures somehow cannot do it justice. Anyway, the pictures I take can't. The cliffs in the distance were bright red and we came upon them rather abrubtly. Absolutely stunning. We caught up with Carrie and Jerry and had a nice lunch at Fargo's located in subarb of St. George, UT. Then we traveled on and set up camp in Sand Hollow State Park outside Hurricane, UT. Sand Hollow is a beautiful little park located just before you enter Zion National Park. We enjoyed our dinner under the picnic shelter. Just beautiful.

May 16 - Mesquite, NV

Day 5: Next stop Mesquite, Nevada. Due to the lack of a suitable road system for cyclists to Mesquite, (cyclists are not allowed on interstate highways and I-15 is the only way you can get from Mojave to Mesquite) Carrie and Jerry had to ride with us to Mesquite. We pulled into the Casablanca Casino RV park in Mesquite about 5:00 pm, very weary from a long day’s drive and very glad our air conditioner was working. A long hard day or driving.

Tired cyclists (who's that in the middle?)

May 15 - Mojave, CA

Day 4: On Saturday morning after getting the cyclists off on the next leg of their journey (by the way, it reminds us of trying to get the kids off to school) Joe decided to, once and for all, get that darn air conditioner fixed correctly. Finding a major automotive service open on a Saturday morning in a large unfamiliar city can be a challenge. Nevertheless, he wound up in a Firestone dealership, open for business and willing to get it repaired that day. First, they ordered the incorrect part, then returned that part for another one, Joe drove out with a new compressor and leaner pocketbook, but really nice, cold air coming from the air conditioner vents. Now it is about 2:30 in the afternoon, and we still have to hook up the trailer and rendezvous with Carrie and Jerry in Mojave, California. We stayed that night again in an RV park that was pretty much a routine RV park, which had been established in the early 1950’s by a retired Marine Corps Sgt. Major. The site was not the best in the world but was in a beautiful desert setting and we had the only tree in the park in our front door. The day ended on a happy note because we had an excellent meal at a Mexican restaurant in the nearby small town of California City.

Carrie relaxing after a long day's journey on her bicycle

Lou whacked her head on the large branch of the tree in the picture and had a dent in the center of her head for several days. However, she didn't have any long term damage.

May 14 -Bakersfield, CA

Day 3: On to Bakersfield - - - - a bustling town of over 300,000 population, located in a drab desert of southern California. Least you think all is sweetness and light, for the past few days our blessed old truck air conditioner was having major problems. Anyhow, we arrived at a very nice RV park with all the nice amenities. The cyclists erected their tent on the lush, green lawn beside our trailer. That evening they went to bed. In the wee hours of the morning the sprinklers came on and they had a wet experience, having to move their tent to a dry RV pad next door. Ahh- the joys of camping.

May 13- Red's Roofing

Day 2: After getting the cyclists started down the road, we got ourselves together and started toward our next destination, about 100 miles south to Hanford. We were now in the land of California “happy cows.” Every few miles we would encounter a huge diary operation with milk cows penned up in fenced enclosures, standing on manure piles up to their ankles. All they do is stand around, eat and produce milk. No green pastures to roam in or flowers to smell as the commercials would have you believe. We are sure happy we started drinking only organic milk several months ago. Late in the afternoon we arrived at Red’s Roofing in the country outside of Hanford. Red and Marjorie Cooper are members of the Escapee RV Club that we have been members of since 1997. As do quite a few of Escapees, they have an RV site on property that is open for use by other Escapees free of charge.
Red proved to be a warm, welcoming and caring person who restored our faith in humanity. He lived on the family farm and he overwhelmed us with fresh strawberries, cherries picked right off his trees and fresh grapefruit for breakfast. To other Escapees, we would highly recommend that you stop by and see Red if you are in that area.

May 12 - Arkansas or Bust (and we'll probably be busted by the time we get there!

May 12: Fully loaded with bicycle parts, tubes and extra bicycles, off we go to be support team for Carrie and Jerry in their cross-country trek to their cabin on Crooked Creek south of Flippin, Arkansas. Foretelling of things to come we wound up going in the wrong direction on a California freeway. Finding a means to turn around proved to be quite an experience. Needless to say this was done with much concern on both of our parts. Our travels on the first few days took us generally through the San Joaquin Valley of central California. It is amazing how much of our food supply is grown here. Most of it appears to be part of a mega-farm operation, no doubt run by corporations. We arrived at Los Banos, CA (Spanish for “the toilets) in time to get camp set up for the weary cyclists. Somehow we missed finding our charges on the road even though we traveled the same roads. Turns out they had lunch in an orchard and at the time we passed the orchard they were having lunch.

Lunch in the orchard

Our lovely campsite was in a grassy area, shaded by Eucalyptus trees in the county fairgrounds. It is not uncommon for fairgrounds to accommodate RV parking during the non-fair seasons. This fairground was well managed by a full time staff and was kept in pristine condition. We were pleasantly surprised, as not all fairgrounds are this well managed.

Champion Cyclist

We are at our daughter's home in Clayton, CA. Our grandson, Ned, is a student the University of California at Davis. He is a member of the university cycling race team and last week-end won 1st place in his division the Western Collegiate Conference championship race. Way to go, Ned.

May 4 - 5 Finally There

Departing early on May 4, by early I mean the sun is barely peeking it’s head above the eastern horizon, we left the cold, windy lava beds and headed for (hopefully) warmer climate. Our holding tanks were full, our water tank was empty, the batteries were low and the generator was out of gas. It was time to leave.
We did not take time to eat breakfast before leaving so we stopped when we got to Weed, CA to eat. We had a wonderful meal at the Weed Café. Lotus had been suffering from a gastro-intestinal problem for a couple of days so we went to the Alpine Vet Clinic, Dr. Grace Roberts, in Weed and had her examined. We left there poorer but Lotus had a whole bag of meds and we all three take our meds together daily.
Weed, CA is at the base of an 11,000 ft. inactive (not extinct) volcano known as Mt. Shasta. Inactive means that it could blow at any time, but what a view out your bedroom window in the meantime.
We spent the night at Orland, CA and arrived at Lathrop in time to have some maintenance on our slide-out room in the trailer. It was another expensive day.
These two days were mostly travel time to reach our final destination at Lathrop, CA and the Sharpe Army Depot campground. We will remain here for about a week, making final preparations for our trip back to Arkansas supporting (?) Carrie and Jerry on their bicycle trip to their cabin in Flippin. Our blog will be inactive for a few days until we begin traveling again.
We are still struggling with the placement of photos. If anyone has any idea how to accomplish this mighty act, please let us know.
Thanks and God bless all our readers.

May 2 and 3 - California Here We Come!

As we said farewell to Oregon and crossed the border into the California nation with fear and trepidation, what could possibly happen. Could we strike gold, or become snowbound in some mountain pass, we might even be forced into the opium trade in the far off Orient. Anyhow, after missing several turns trying to find Lower KlamathWildlife Refuge, we wound up in the Indian Wells Campground at Lava Beds National Monument in northern California. We will tour this tomorrow as well as the wildlife refuge we finally found, so stay tuned.,
May 3 – Lava Beds National Monument
Rising early in the morn, we set out to see the Lava Beds. They are almost indescribable and our camera is not capable of taking photos that do them justice. At one time way back when, there was major volcanic activity throughout this part of the continent. There were also large shallow lakes in this area, resting place for the semi-annual migration of birds along the Pacific flyaway. The area was also home for Modoc Indians until the white man arrived in the 1800’s. The white man promptly drained the lakes for rich farm land and complained about the Indians until the army drove them out to reservations in Oklahoma and the migratory bird population has been greatly reduced due to loss of habitat and hunting.
A great example of these lava beds is aptly called “The Devil’s Homestead”, a dark foreboding plain of jagged lava rocks. Another feature throughout theses particular lava beds are caves.
The caves are formed by hot, molten lava about 1800° F. The outer edges and surface of the flow cool rapidly and begin to harden. This “outside shell” acts as an insulating material, while the remainder of the flow beneath it remains hot and fast-moving. The flow continues on somewhat like a river that keeps on flowing, even though the surface has been frozen over. When the eruption stops and the river of lava drains, a tunnel or tube ─ the outer shell − is left. We were able to tour one of these caves but most of them were beyond our capabilities. There are over 500 known caves throughout the Monument.










There were many other features we encountered, such as “chimneys”, “castles”, and the petroglyth section where the Indians had carved drawings onto the rock wall of a large cliff. No one knows what the drawings mean, much like we don’t know what modern day graffiti means.
We returned to our campsite late in the afternoon, weary but with our spirits refreshed by witnessing once again a magnificent portion of God’s creation.

May 1 - Newberry National Volcanic Monument

We had come this way specifically to see Newberry National Volcanic Monument, so off we went. Much to our chagrin most of the area was closed, and would not be open until mid-May. However, being the determined tourists that we are, we found a back road up the mountains to the trail head leading to Lava Cast Forest.
The first 500 yards of the trail there was at least two feet of snow (see picture of beginning of trail), but it had been stomped down into a passable trail so we decided to give it a go.
6000 years ago there were major volcanic eruptions throughout the northwest. The country then was much as it is today, standing pine forests. The lava from Newberry volcano flowed through the forests and around the trees. As the lava cooled it formed casts or molds of the tree trunks. Over the years, the trees, of course, died and rotted out leaving cylinder like holes in the lava bed. These holes ranged in depth from 13 to 15 feet to the soil.

Leaving the forest, we drove into Bend, had a delightful lunch at a full-service Chinese restaurant, no buffet, our food was freshly prepared just for us. We took enough food home for another entire meal. It was wonderful! From there we went to the Bend Public Library to publish our blog on the internet (finally), download over 150 e-mail messages (mostly junk mail) and other computer activities.
The Bend Public Library is probably the best we have encountered in our travels, and we visited many to take advantage of their internet access. The building was a two story structure with open glass walls, and in use by many people of all ages on a busy Saturday afternoon.
Leaving there we did mundane chores such as buying fuel and food (the two major expenses of our travels, just like home) and returned to our campsite.

April 30 –Changing Landscapes

Heading south on Hwy. 97 through central Oregon Mount Hood was visible for miles and miles and miles. The scenery changes drastically every few miles from rolling hills to jagged clifts, interspaced with river gorges, forests of Ponderosa Pines and lonely desert country. It is very reminiscent of the Colorado high country.
We passed through several small villages. Just wanted to share these pictures of Maupin, OR, just one of those villages.

We arrived at La Pine State Park south of Bend, OR late that afternoon and set up camp in a beautiful pine forest, high and dry. I might add that the weather in Oregon can be cold, windy, wet and any combination thereof. Being so early in the season we got it all.